Love hurts, but it still makes the great world spin. That’s the message of Crazy for You, the debut album by Best Coast, a Los Angeles duo who kicked off their summer tour yesterday at the Pitchfork Music Festival.

The record, which drops next week, opens with singer Bethany Cosentino’s declaration “I wish he was my boyfriend” and ends with the repeated assertion “I hate sleeping alone.” In between, Crazy for You is filled with crushes and unrequited love, often to the point of obsession.

Best Coast, Boyfriend

Like many indie bands profiled on FP this spring, Best Coast is definitely a throwback. Crazy for You fuses the sounds of decades: from 60s girl groups and surf rock to 80s teen pop like the Bangles and the Go-Gos to 1990s indie queens. Though they perform with other musicians, Best Coast consists of Consentino and multi-instrumentalist Bob Brunno. And as we have said, in 2010, if it’s not a duo, it’s not a band

Best Coast, Each and Every Day

If there’s an old-fashionedness to the music, the lyrics seem to sidestep 50 years of feminism. Imagine Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville or Juliana Hatfield’s Become What You Are without the edginess or empowerment. According to the songs on Crazy For You, girls are forever at the mercy of boys who love them, leave them, or don’t even know they exist. The narrators have crushes from afar, wait to be noticed, wait for their men to come home, and literally wait by the phone. Despite all the missing and longing, there’s a perpetual hope that the guys will come around. With the exception of a few references to weed, the cultural universe and (gender roles) seem more Greatest Generation than Twitter Generation.

Best Coast, Summer Mood

Still, Best Coast can write pop songs. The tunes on Crazy for You hit hard and fast, with most tracks lasting less than three minutes (and often closer to two minutes). The catchiness comes from harmonic and melodic simplicity combined with the repetition of simple phrases, e.g. “I miss you,” “You make me happy” and “You will never fall in love.” The structure shares the same simplicity, with the exception of two songs that change tempo at the two-minute mark.  (One speeds up, the other slows down).

While the record drops July 27, you can stream the whole album now.  And this fall, Best Coast will tour with FP favorites Male Bonding. Maybe they can teach each other a few things about the opposite sex.

Best Coast plays South Street Seaport this Friday, July 23. See their myspace page for full tour dates.